FILTERS: Is Zellbright really better than sand?

[songkran]

My pool is now finished all but filling the filter with sand and filling the pool with water. My pool builder is trying hard to convince me to use a product called Zellbright instead of sand but he wants 7,000 baht for it. It's only a small pool. This sounds a lot, really a lot for some kind of sand, in fact it smacks of scam but I am not in Pattaya. Does any one know about this stuff? Any answers appreciated. Thanks.

[jazzman]

Yes it is much better than sand, is the simple answer.
Yes it is also much more expensive than sand.
It's actually spellt Zelbrite and that's probably why you couldn't find any information on it if you have been trying.

It's not a hoax. The product really is amazing and will stand up to all the manufacturer's claims and over the longer term will save you a lot of money in water treatment, even if you are not using a saltwater chlorinator.

If you are using a big filter which holds 150Kg of sand, you could get away with using 75% by weight of Zelbrite because it is so efficient you don't need so much.

7,000 baht would sound about right.. It's sold by the importers in Bangkok in 25 kg bags at around 1,000 baht a bag, so your builder isn't making much profit on it.

However, that size filter would usually be used for a pool of around 100,000 litres and that's not a small pool. That's about 8 x 12 or 5 x 20 at an average depth of 1m. A small domestic pool is considered to be a 4 x 10 or less, which is less than half that.

Verdict: It could be that your pool builder has sold you double the pump/filtration capacity you need - this happens quite regularly, both Thai and foreign builders in Thailand operate this scam - to make more money on their mark up for supplying the equipment. So your contractor has made a big profit on your pool.

Check Jazzman's main article about pools here, it contains a direct link to the Zelbrite website:
http://coolthaihouse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=645

You could also try mailing these people:
poolandspa@ultratran.com
They are British pool and building consultants in Thailand but they give a lot of free expert advice.

[songkran]

Thank you for that exellent reply Jazzman. It was much more than i expectred, and I looked the website of Zelbrite up. Impressive!
I'm afraid you seem to be right about double capacity. Our pool is a small sort of kidney shaped so it is difficult to calculate the exact volume but it is not much more thanabout 40,000 litres. in fact now that I have explored the web more about filters and pumps etc it looks as if not one, but two models smaller and a 0.5 HP pump would have done the trick. I was curious about saltwater chlorinators and i looked that up too. I will have to think about one of these.

Thanks for the tips. This is a great site and I hope others will take notice of how I got duped.

[jazzman]

Another product now available in Thailand is DiamondKleen from Australia.
According to university laboratory tests in New Zealand, these fused silicone dioxide, Na2O, and CaO crystals outperform silica sand by a factor of 3,600,000 to 1 for bacterial containment, and greatly reduce the need for backwashing. It practically never needs to be changed, and only two-thirds by volume is required compared with sand. Sold in 15 Kg bags, six bags should be enough for the average 21 - 24" filter.

One disadvantage is the price: Some suppliers will sell it for about 720 baht per bag, while the greedier ones are asking 1,200. It's a good idea to stipulate it if you are having a new pool built or changing your filtration system. If your pool builder pretends not to know about it, PM me for details of a supplier near you at reasonable prices.
Technical details and an independent university report are available from http://www.diamondkleen.com

[jazzman]

Diamond Kleen disappeared from the market for a while after its manufacturer, PoolRite, went out of business.
The Evolve Group took over the PoolRite product portfolio in mid 2013 and has started manufacturing and marketing some of the PoolRite products again including Diamond Kleen. It remains to be seen if the former Diamond Kleen importers will offer this product for sale again in Thailand. There are a couple of other 'manufacturers' of the same kind of product, but whatever they call it, it's still simply crushed recycled glass; since my earlier posts a couple of years ago on this subject, I have experimented with both Zelbrite and Diamond Kleen and have come to the firm conclusion that Zelbrite is the technically better product. Other pool owners may of course have other results.

In the meantime, due to its increasing popularity and efficiency, the price of Zelbrite has dropped significantly and is now actually cheaper than crushed glass is/was. Different pool 'specialists' will have different prices for Zelbrite but if they are quoting more than around Baht 800 per 15 Kg bag, start shopping around.

[jazzman]

Update.

Zelbrite (the genuine stuff from the Zeolite Co. Ltd in Australia) is still the very best possible physical filter media available for pools and larger scale water treatment plants. far superior to crushed glass and of course ordinary graded silica sand, it even trmps D.E. (diatomaceous earth). It's more expensive than crushed glass of course, but it will last years longer. On a new pool it hardly impacts on the total budget so it would be silly not to use it. rtailing in 2016 from Baht 900 - 1,300 depending on pool shop.

[Shastadad]

Not an endorsement, but it can be obtained online

<link removed - mod>

[Shastadad]

PM me if you would like an online provider for zelbrite since for some unfathomable reason I am not allowed to list a vendor because of personality differences here at CTH

So much for an open forum

[oil]

there is some logic with Zelbrite which escapes me completly,
if the purpose of the filter substrate is to filter out dirt.... Zelbrite might do a excellent job, but getting that dirt out of Zelbrite with a Backwash seems hard the way they explain it

[BKKBILL]

You may fine this site interesting, it explains how zeolite works.

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/zeolites.html

[Rdteth]

Been looking into this one also lately.
Sofar I found nothing proofing zeolite is any better than sand.
Sofar I guess it is a commercial story.
I stick to sand.

[Klondyke]

I also stick to a river sand. Having it in my filter over 6 years, frequently backwashed (not overly long), resulting in daily crystal clear water.
How much more clear could it be with a zeolite?
After all, the water in the pool we have just for swimming, haven't we?

[Sometimewoodworker]

Been looking into this one also lately.
Sofar I found nothing proofing zeolite is any better than sand.
Sofar I guess it is a commercial story.
I stick to sand.

There is abundant evidence that Zeolites are significantly better than sand. From twice as good to 5 times better and up. These data includes some that comes from the sellers of product a substantial amount is from academic research papers.

https://www.intechopen.com/books/water-treatment/natural-zeolites-in-water-treatment-how-effective-is-their-use this is not directed at swimming pool use but much higher throughput like drinking water and wastewater treatment.

However i do not know if the performance increase are value for money.

[Breizh29]

Personally I will go for zeolite or glass filter media.

[Rdteth]

So what do you want.
A wastewater regeneration plant alias a chemical factory.....or
you want to have clean and clear poolwater? Because the scientists among us will be measuring many many other parameters of their poolwater too and always be busy adding chemicals to adjust certain levels.
I go for the clear water.
And I did not find anybody who changed from sand to zeolites to say that any improvement occured. Except maybe for a possible small concensus of a better smell in the first 3 days after switching.

So ask youreself: Are you a scientist or a poolowner?
Or you don't know what to do with your money?

cheers